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Monday, October 1, 2012

The Bitter Sting of Rejection...

Today I received a rejection of my submission, Prometheus Undead, to the Dead North Anthology. I'm disappointed. I thought I had a really good shot at this anthology.

One of the more disappointing things, and this applies to a lot of other publishers out there, is that they're very vague about why the story was rejected. In my case, "Sadly, this doesn't find our needs." However, I have sent a quick reply, thanking them and wishing them good luck on the anthology, but also asking them why my story was rejected. I know there are a lot of submissions to these themed anthologies, but I think if someone takes the time to write a 4,000+ story, the least an editor can do is explain in a sentence or two why it was rejected. I'd like to know if there's something I can do to improve the story or my writing, or to find out if there were too many similar stories that were already part of the anthology.

To their credit, they replied with the explanation that it didn't grab them. So, now it's time for me to perhaps look at the story's opening and find a way to get things going a bit faster, to clear a bit of the clutter out and get to the story.

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Last Friday, I also received a letter telling me my Endless Night novel proposal was rejected by the city of Toronto Arts Council. I wasn't really surprised as these awards usual stir clear of genre fiction.

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On a positive front, my first draft of Endless Night has pushed passed the halfway mark at 45,000 words.

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SPIRIT QUEST

I'm currently looking for representation for SPIRIT QUEST, a 98,000-word Rural Fantasy set in Canada that weaves Ojibwe spirituality and legend into a fast-paced thriller, all filtered through a blue-collared protagonist.